Under COPPA, how do I know if my channel is “directed to children”? Since the FTC and New York Attorney General announced their September 2019 settlement with YouTube for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule, we’ve heard that question from channel owners – sometimes called content creators. If you’re a channel owner who shares content on user-generated platforms like YouTube, read on for FTC staff guidance about the applicability of the COPPA Rule and how those covered by the Rule can comply with its requirements.

The FTC action against YouTube and Google

The lawsuit against YouTube and Google alleged that the companies illegally collected personal information from children, in violation of COPPA. According to the complaint, the companies collected that information from viewers of child-directed YouTube channels in the form of persistent identifiers that track users across the Internet, but didn’t notify parents and get their consent. To settle the case, YouTube and Google agreed to create a mechanism so that channel owners can designate when the videos they upload to YouTube are – to use the words of COPPA – “directed to children.” The purpose of this requirement is to make sure that both YouTube and channel owners are complying with the law.

A COPPA recap

That provision of the settlement has raised questions among content creators about how to determine if what they upload to YouTube or other platforms is “directed to children.” The answer requires a brief summary of some key COPPA provisions. Passed by Congress in 1998, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is a federal law that protects the privacy of children under 13. COPPA’s foundational principle is one that most people can agree on: Parents – not kids, companies, platforms, or content creators – should be in control when it comes to information collected from children online.

The COPPA Rule defines “personal information” to include obvious things like a child’s first and last name or home address, but that’s not all. Under COPPA, personal information also covers what are called persistent identifiers – behind-the-scenes code that recognizes a user over time and across different sites or online services. That could be an IP address or a cookie when it’s used to serve targeted ads. Keep in mind that an operator also might be collecting personal information through an open comment field on its site or service that allows a user under 13 to make personal information publicly available. For example, think of a comment like this on a child-directed site: My name is Mary Jones from Springfield. I love this video!

How COPPA applies to channel owners

So how does COPPA apply to channel owners who upload their content to YouTube or another third-party platform? COPPA applies in the same way it would if the channel owner had its own website or app. If a channel owner uploads content to a platform like YouTube, the channel might meet the definition of a “website or online service” covered by COPPA, depending on the nature of the content and the information collected. If the content is directed to children and if the channel owner, or someone on its behalf (for example, an ad network), collects personal information from viewers of that content (for example, through a persistent identifier that tracks a user to serve interest-based ads), the channel is covered by COPPA. Once COPPA applies, the operator must provide notice, obtain verifiable parental consent, and meet COPPA’s other requirements. For information on how to comply with COPPA, please visit the FTC’s COPPA page for our Six-Step Compliance Plan for Your Business.

How channel owners can determine if their content is directed to children

Under COPPA, there is no one-size-fits-all answer about what makes a site directed to children, but we can offer some guidance. To be clear, your content isn’t considered “directed to children” just because some children may see it. However, if your intended audience is kids under 13, you’re covered by COPPA and have to honor the Rule’s requirements.

The Rule sets out additional factors the FTC will consider in determining whether your content is child-directed:

the subject matter,

visual content,

the use of animated characters or child-oriented activities and incentives,

the kind of music or other audio content,

the age of models,

the presence of child celebrities or celebrities who appeal to children,

language or other characteristics of the site,

whether advertising that promotes or appears on the site is directed to children, and

competent and reliable empirical evidence about the age of the audience.

The determination of whether content is child-directed will be clearer in some contexts than in others, but we can share some general rules of thumb. First, unless you’re affirmatively targeting kids, there are many subject matter categories where you don’t have to worry about COPPA. For example, if your videos are about traditionally adult activities like employment, finances, politics, home ownership, home improvement, or travel, you’re probably not covered unless your content is geared toward kids. The same would be true for videos aimed at high school or college students. On the other hand, if your content includes traditional children’s pastimes or activities, it may be child-directed. For example, the FTC recently determined that an online dress-up game was child-directed.

Second, just because your video has bright colors or animated characters doesn’t mean you’re automatically covered by COPPA. While many animated shows are directed to kids, the FTC recognizes there can be animated programming that appeals to everyone.

Third, the complaint in the YouTube case offers some examples of channels the FTC considered to be directed to children. For example, many content creators explicitly stated in the “About” section of their YouTube channel that their intended audience was children under 13. Other channels made similar statements in communications with YouTube. In addition, many of the channels featured popular animated children’s programs or showed kids playing with toys or participating in other child-oriented activities. Some of the channel owners also enabled settings that made their content appear when users searched for the names of popular toys or animated characters. Want to see the FTC’s analysis in context? Read pages 10-14 of the YouTube complaint.

Finally, if you’ve applied the factors listed in the COPPA Rule and still wonder if your content is “directed to children,” it might help to consider how others view your content and content similar to yours. Has your channel been reviewed on sites that evaluate content for kids? Is your channel – or channels like yours – mentioned in blogs for parents of young children or in media articles about child-directed content? Have you surveyed your users or is there other empirical evidence about the age of your audience?

What are the possible penalties for violating COPPA?

The Rule allows for civil penalties of up to $42,530 per violation, but the FTC considers a number of factors in determining the appropriate amount, including a company’s financial condition and the impact a penalty could have on its ability to stay in business. While Google and YouTube paid $170 million, in another COPPA case settled this year, the operator paid a total civil penalty of $35,000.

Isn’t the FTC taking another look at the COPPA Rule?

Yes, the FTC is currently evaluating the Rule in light of rapid changes in technology. If you would like to comment on the effectiveness of the COPPA Rule and whether changes are needed, the FTC has extended the comment deadline to December 9, 2019.

Comments

The guidelines on what is considered "child-directed" is extremely vague. There are a lot of channels that are family friendly based on their values, but are not geared solely towards children. With the new policies being put in place those creators' livelihoods are in jeopardy based on something out of their control. In order for them to continue their passions in a way that they are still able to have a steady income, they would have to possibly make significant changes.

To have an account on YouTube you must be at least 13 years of age, so ideally no one under the age of 13 would be on YouTube's main platform unless they were given consent by their guardian. That being said, it is also up to parents to monitor what their children have access to.

There are some people who will abuse any system, but the community should not be punished for the wrongdoings of a few individuals. I sincerely hope that "The Rule" is given revisions and much deliberation. I also think that only having a little over a month's notice is not enough time for any creator to act with how unclear everything is at the moment.

I'm Dutch and I do not collect data I'm no big Firm that can do that...I'm a parent and I teach my child not to publicly use our adres or phone information...If a child should do it any way...I understand its dangerous and will never use it because I don't collect data anyway... I'm a single person not a YouTube Firm that can collect data. I'm a crafter and love to have children watching because it teaches and inspirer a whole new generation. But This Law is to vague and not compleet for the users of platforms like YouTube on the Web...I understand its not only YouTube it's a worldwide internet platform use...I will put for kids...But this law is not clear on anything of the content of my canal at YouTube as a crafter????

Hello FTC, im a 13 year old kid and youtube is something you just cannot change. Please don’t do the COPPA thing because it will not just affect the viewers like me but it will also affect the content creators. Many good youtubers will fail because they cannot make content anymore. My suggestion is that you COMPLETELY cancel this COPPA thing or you can just adjust this. The rules are too strict. FTC, if you somehow read this, im just helping myself and other youtubers. Im complaning politely, and thank you for reading this

I don't think that there is a single person watching YouTube who genuinely wants this to be a thing. COPPA is incredibly vague and clearly wasn't given much thought, as it completely mess with the livelihood of most if not all content creators on YouTube. The internet has gone on long enough without this becoming a thing and it makes no sense for these guideline to start now.

I would like to know if me making videos about my gothic culture is considered kid friendly. I deleted my videos to avoid any future fines as I cannot afford them. Would I need to curse in order to maintain an adult audience? I do not nor have I ever wished to target my channel to children. I am scared about the whole situation to the point where my anxiety is getting worse. I would like some clarification to at least calm down a bit.

many youtubers post some of the things you claim as “child friendly” such as animated game character, yet younger kids watch channels such as jake paul who know their audience is under 13 but post things such as his relationship with his girlfriend that include dangerous acts and inappropriate stories. how will you determine the age, and what kids are really watching? how is this not going to affect channels which use e rated games for content for older kids around 16 but use this child friendly game? the statements you claim as “kid friendly” are also used in videos made for the intended audience of 16 and above. how will you fight this against youtube while not ruining the careers and channels many older audiences love?

This is absolutely outrageous. there are countless of other ways that this issue could have been dealt with. and because of this law, millions of peoples lives are going to be ruined forever. I would rather have youtube permanently deleted than have this rule come into play. I hope that you guys can learn to see this issue through the creators eyes, and remove or at least adjust this rule to make it more clear for these creators.

FTC has to protect child content on YouTube. If COPPA is implemented, child channels will eventualy dissapear as without money no one will want to publish. That will result that toddlers and kids watch aggresive content, not related to them. The best option would be that on every channel is offered the option for parents to accept that YouTube do what it already did or not. That what YouTube did brought content creators the money for their work. So, the decision should be on parents.

Hello FTC and anyone else reading this response to the recent issue that has arisen with "children directed content". I myself have been a small creator on Youtube for a few months now and reading these new guidelines on my channel has concerned me deeply. It is true that many children use Youtube every day to watch their favorite content creators and are found in dangerous situations here and there to inappropriate content, like any other social media platform/website. From what I've read throughout all the articles, guidelines, concerns, etc. about this issue I've come to the conclusion that this statement of guideline changes is still very vague. You've given a decent explanation so far of what content creators need to look out for and what we can be fined upon but the guidelines are still unclear for some creators. These creators being the ones who intend their videos to be directed towards Youtube's standard audience of 13+, who don't curse, have animated characters, and include well-known franchises (like the gaming community) let's say like Pokemon or Minecraft. What will happen to these channels? To me, they are perfectly fine and these types of demographics are related to kids, teens, and adults. Therefore why should they put their channel into one categorized setting from mature to child-directed? I personally believe that this new rule should be removed from Youtube completely as it will destroy the platform and force content creators to find new sources of income. This new rule would also potentially make content on Youtube more mature, meaning more cursing and inappropriate topics. We all know that kids lie about their age on the internet and sometimes parents tell their kids to do this as well because of privacy issues, so what if these children come across one of these newly made mature videos? Instead, why don't we remove this new guideline in general and promote the family-friendly channels and Youtube kids then remove the inappropriate channels you don't want your kids watching. Half of the time kids don't even pay attention to ads and will just skip them entirely so I don't understand how this has become a major issue on Youtube especially since ads can be found anywhere in technology. Ads can be found on cable TV, websites, social media platforms, apps on your electronic device, a billboard sign, a restaurant/fast food joint, and even schools. Therefore I ask you please think about this decision once again before you destroy amazing people's financial services and the vague guidelines you set before us creators. Thank you for your time. - Natalie

Examples of stories that ARE made for kids (Also according to a statement from COPPA):
- Their childhood toys, games and films (Suitable for people below 13)
- Vlogging in places (Playgrounds, elementary schools, preschools & toy stores selling toys for people below 13)

Please don’t do this to YouTube this will hurt every content creator and their channels this is something that they love to do which is their job and their life especially the videos we all like to watch don’t take them down that’s why there’s YouTube kids that these younger viewers can watch leave YouTube the way it is!

The biggest issue is that the decision as to whether COPPA would apply to a video - such as a mature craft or hobby video - is ultimately subjective, by which time it would appear to be too late.
That makes it a BAD solution, because there is no clarity - no hard line. It is wrong to have laws that can massively fine people when the law itself cannot provide sufficient clarity of definition for real day-to-day application by normal people.

The complaint in the YouTube case offers some examples of channels the FTC considered to be directed to children. For example, many content creators explicitly stated in the “About” section of their YouTube channel that their intended audience was children under 13. Other channels made similar statements in communications with YouTube. In addition, many of the channels featured popular animated children’s programs or showed kids playing with toys or participating in other child-oriented activities. Some of the channel owners also enabled settings that made their content appear when users searched for the names of popular toys or animated characters. Read pages 10-14 of the YouTube complaint to see the FTC’s analysis in context.

You people need to realize that a lot of the stuff you listed as "appealing to kids" is liked by adults too, not just some adults but wide swaths of the adult and young adult population! Learn about nerd, geek, animation, etc culture, just because of kids like it too DOES NOT MEAN IT IS FOR KIDS. Learn more about what you are regulating before you destroy not only an entire online community but the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people who make content related to pop culture and who aim their content AT ADULTS!

This is legally important that you listen to what our content creators have to say because millions are not very happy about the incoming changes to the platform. And a $42,000 fine is ridiculous because our content creators will be bankrupt and homeless.

Please take this into consideration and rethink this through, it's affecting our communities and the content creators who've been on the YouTube working very hard.

This is just the gov giving themselves control over commutation and claiming it's "to protect the children". In 10 years, i'm sure critisizing the FTC will be declared "harmful to children" and we'll be fined for comments like these.

YouTube is 109% at fault here- not the creators and not the parents. Kids have way too much access via any mobile device/smart tv etc. Even Google’s Parent Link system is awful. They are the distributor (like ABC, NBC, Hulu). If they aren’t paying for programming but are going to make gobs of money off the creators- they need to be responsible for who accessed THEIR site and what content goes to what group. Just because content would be of interest to a kid doesn’t make it kid friendly. Before each video- put an ad, disclaimer & age verification & be done with it.

As we said, it's a parent's fault too because they don't care about his child and let them watch any video. So, we can't fault all YouTuber Creator because some of the videos are appropriate for kids. But, some gaming videos like puzzle block, cooking simulator, Minecraft, etc. Video gaming still is appropriate for kids under 13 years old.

We can't blame all YouTube Creator. Give a chance to all YouTube Creator.

I really think if kids under 13 are watching videos, maybe their parents should monitor it? It just seems like it's absurd that you can get charged if the FTC thinks your video isn't this or that, but you thought it was or wasn't? Hopefully, warnings will be given first if it violates because many of us aren't sure.

Like, I make lyric videos and believe they shouldn't really be aimed at kids, but maybe Harry Styles could???? It's all very vague and when this goes into effect, you guys should make sure that you warn those who are violating so they can change it because we all think differently...

As a young content creator, I believe that creators who make content directed towards kids and live of adsense, will be forced to make adult content or quit YouTube all together. As a result of this, there is going to be more content on YouTube that is directed for adults and teenagers. However, kids are still going to watch YouTube. Its not the content creators fault that children's parents allow them to watch their favorite videos.

I think the best option would simply be to allow parents to give explicit permission for YouTube to use their children's data from YouTube. It is the parent's responsibility to protect children online, not content creators, YouTube themself, or even the FTC. Thank you for taking this message into consideration and I hope it makes an impact.

Okay, since we found out you’re actually supporting videos for the general audience, YouTube is going AGAINST that notion. They are instead forcing us to have two selections: “Kid” and “Adult” resulting in having a lose-lose situation. You guys gotta do something about it before this happens.

These rules are vague and don't make sense. Where would Love Nikki (a dress up app many adults and teens play) fall? It'd definitely not a children's game. Will I be fined for marking my content as not for children, despite the game falling under the dress up category? Please be more clear or make an E for everyone category. Something content creators can mark if they make content for both adults and children. Also youtube is the one collecting data on its viewers. Not the content creators.

PLEASE consider other viewers who depend on videos to enhance their hobbies and income. I am a pensioner and cannot afford to attend classes. Plus, I live in South Africa so how on earth can I visit classes overseas?!

This is too vague and this is basically all the entertainment of youtube your saying is wrong. I can't believe some of you dont watch or understand youtube and are making a law that will kill all GOOD, ORIGINAL AND LIVELY CONTENT on youtube. Please, this is too aggressive. I myself is an animator and this is scaring me from doing what i love. Because it appeals to children. Anything appeals from kids that's why we have different jobs and why we are diverse. Because there is watchable stuff for all of us. PLEASE RECONSIDER THE DAMAGE YOU ARE DOING TO THIS PLATFORM.

Foreign-based websites and online services must comply with COPPA if they are directed to children in the United States, or if they knowingly collect personal information from children in the U.S. The law’s definition of “operator” includes foreign-based websites and online services that are involved in commerce in the United States or its territories.

hi im a 23 year old adult who has been watching youtube from the beginning. these new laws could kill THOUSANDS of jobs and could put some people into poverty. also the rules are way to vauge and undescriptive. please dont enact these laws it will hurt you rather than help. thanks for reading

My Channels are for Adults and children because my videos are not violent and not out of ordinary just an informations about what's going on in the world today especially when it's abnormal but natural ,thanks for understanding please when ever my video is out of children view let me know okay.and God almighty bless you all in Jesus christ name Amen.

What the h**k coppa, i know you protect children but this is just torcher (idk if i spelled it right, im on mobile) like cant we just watch something that is good for kidos and us, pre teens and adults can FREAKING watch, like for pre teens, memes or games from xbox or playstation or for adults, FREAKING ANYTHING so just stop this thing from afecting us how to watch you tube, please and if not, the go live under a brige

Pages

Add new comment

Privacy Act Statement

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system (PDF), and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system (PDF). We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.